Paris Olympics opening ceremony captivates US audience with record viewership

According to NBCUniversal, which is a subsidiary of Comcast, preliminary data released on Saturday showed the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics pulled in 28.6 million viewers in the United States. That was the most-watched opening ceremony for a summer Games since the 2012 London Olympics.

Friday's event, featuring delegations of athletes floating down the Seine past some of the best-known landmarks of the City of Light, with singer Celine Dion performing her first public performance in years, proved to be quite the spectacle for viewers. NBCUniversal has a lot riding on its success, with $7.65 billion for the US broadcast rights to the Olympics through 2032. It is the largest Olympics media rights deal in the world.

The viewership figure, which includes NBC and streaming service Peacock, is a boon for the broadcaster compared to just 17 million viewers for the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. Less than ideal time zones for the US audience and a continuing worldwide pandemic sank the overall viewership for the Tokyo and Beijing 2022 Olympics.

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Leading up to the Paris Olympics, NBCUniversal was eager to talk up its coverage in an effort to win viewers back to the event. The goodies included pop star Beyoncé, who did an introduction for Team USA in a video that aired just before the American athletes appeared on the river—the first of many celebrity engagements for the network's coverage throughout the Olympics.

NBCUniversal is also looking at making the incorporation of AI within their broadcast, including resurrecting the voice of legendary sportscaster Al Michaels. It's an innovative approach to enhance the experience of viewers while keeping the audience at high levels of engagement during all elements of the broadcast.

The record viewers for the Opening Ceremony of the Paris Olympics marked the fitting beginning for NBCUniversal in both global appeal and the network's push to rejuvenate interest in the Olympics. This kind of a start should help instil network confidence in its massive investment and strategy going forward for the Games.